OHP is simply a tough lift man. It's not different from bench in just a shift from chest to more shoulders, you have to balance that weight from the floor, a lot of core strength and it's way more taxing.

One thing I've noticed is you can squat or deadlift heavy before heavy bench and it won't affect it really. But doing them before OHP just kills your core strength before you get started.

chewybaws wrote:OHP is simply a tough lift man. It's not different from bench in just a shift from chest to more shoulders, you have to balance that weight from the floor, a lot of core strength and it's way more taxing.

One thing I've noticed is you can squat or deadlift heavy before heavy bench and it won't affect it really. But doing them before OHP just kills your core strength before you get started.

Bad workout. I don't eat as well at school, nor am I as happy. Obviously this isn't good for my progress. My roommate drives me crazy. He is always in the room. Okay, now I'm mostly just whining, not proposing reasons why my lifts are suffering.

lobsteriffic wrote:Hang in there, room mates can be tough to deal with. Are you living in a dorm? What are the food options like there? Sorry if you've already mentioned that somewhere.

Thanks for the concern. I'm doing fine... was just annoyed with my body after that bad workout. Yes, I'm living in a dorm. I'm in a forced triple--a double converted into a triple. It's not bad, just not as nice as home haha They always have vegan food here, so I shouldn't have complained. I need to make myself eat more, is all. I should get a rice cooker and always have quinoa cooked....

Give lower-carb dieting a shot when it's time to cut some fat. I find that I can still maintain strength well on about 125-150g carbs/day (eating one larger carb-filled meal after training, rest of them on the low side of the spectrum), best type of diet I've done to drop fat without losing a ton of muscle or needing to kick in cardio multiple times per week.

"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

And, to follow up on the overhead stuff as Chewy noted, it's usually the slowest lifting to progress for most people, so don't sweat it too much. As I tend to tell people here often, if your overhead strict pressing stalls out, change it up to doing push presses, 1-arm DB presses with a bit of side lean when necessary, partial presses, etc. as those things tend to work well for breaking through strict pressing plateaus. When you get to where you're push pressing 10-20% above your strict press weights, it definitely builds more strength and confidence for when you go back to strict pressing. Which is why I'm about to change back to non-strict pressing soon, as I'm hitting a wall myself!

"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous